The dark side of forever
by elisabethjj
Summary: Beth is falling apart, heartbroken and abandoned. Josef wouldn't give her the help she wanted, but won't completely go away either. And what has happened to Mick? A Beth/Josef friendship fic, Mick/Beth implied. Post-series finale.
1. Chapter 1

**The dark side of forever**

_Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of any part of Moonlight- this is purely a not-for-profit fanfiction to pay respect to a great show I am gutted was cancelled. _

**Chapter 1**

_A/n: This first chapter is just getting the story started. There is an OC but he is only a plot-device, so please do not be put off by that- there will be lots of recognisable faces as it unfolds. _

Beth Turner was being followed.

Glancing behind over her shoulder, the pavement was empty and no ominous shapes loomed out of the night time shadows. The harsh orange glow of streetlamps brightly dispelled the darkness that otherwise blanketed downtown L.A., with any moonlight hidden above the cloudy sky. It was nearly four in the morning and the street appeared completely deserted.

Still, Beth could tell someone was there. Having worked with and dated a vampire for almost two years, not to mention being an investigative reporter with a nose for trouble, Beth could tell when danger was lurking nearby, and her spider-senses were tingling.

'Please let it be a mugger,' Beth muttered aloud to herself, digging in her oversize shoulder bag for her pepper spray and reaching her other hand down to locate the comforting press of cold metal, where a newly purchased taser gun was tucked into her waistband. 'A nice, normal, run-of-the-mill-responds-to-electric-shocks-and-stinging-eyes mugger.' Unfortunately, Beth was all too aware of the far greater dangers out there in the night.

Picking up speed and cursing the lack of parking outside the paper factory where she had been covertly chasing a lead tonight, Beth made it to the multi-storey parking garage where she had left the Mercedes and practically ran into the elevator. When the metal doors closed behind her, she breathed a sigh of relief and slumped against the side wall. Her reflection stared back at her from the mirrors covering three walls of the elevator cage. Blonde hair scraped back into ponytail secured unglamorously at the nape of her neck; dark circles under her eyes that the expensive liquid concealer did not quite hide; blue eyes that betrayed constant tiredness and the dull pain that greeted her every single morning when she woke up. The clothes and the make-up could not hide the fact that, even after nearly eight months, Beth was barely holding it together.

Working harder and longer hours than ever before was the only way she could get through each day and, if she was being more reckless than advisable, then maybe she needed that too. Beth grasped at anything to occupy her mind, to make her heart beat loudly enough to avoid the awful moments when she was left with her own melancholy thoughts. Bedtime was the worst and she had to be tired enough to fall immediately into unconsciousness.

The elevator ping alerted Beth to its arrival at the top floor and she stepped out onto the tarmac roof. The Mercedes was parked on the far edge of the roof, just two spaces away from the only other remaining vehicle on this level, a black Jeep truck with tinted windows. From up here, she could see the city lights across a few miles, and it made her think of all the nasty, scary things crawling around down there.

A soft swish of air on her cheek, suddenly alerted Beth to the fact that there were some nasty, scary things on this roof too.

Whirling as she reached the side of her car, pepper spray already drawn, she came face to face with her assailant. Just in time to see the surprise in his eyes as the man let out a strangled 'ohhh' of pain and crumpled to the floor. The squirt of pepper spray she was already in the process of triggering went directly into the eyes of the vampire who was standing behind him. The vampire, who she could identify as such by the extended fangs and pale, filmy eyes, hissed briefly in pain and took a few steps back to wipe his eyes with the sleeve of his overcoat.

'Oh no! I'm sorry,' Beth apologised, immediately. Pepper spray would not have caused the vampire to hesitate, if he had intended to attack her. The bad side of knowing what creatures were out there, was that Beth knew there was nothing she could do to protect herself from them. Well, not walking alone at night in empty parking lots was probably a good start, but if she came face to face with a vampire, she knew her pepper spray and taser gun would be about as useful as a feather duster in a lion's den.

'Quite alright, Miss,' the vampire offered, in a deep, almost melodic, British accent that might befit Queen Elizabeth of England's butler. 'It's my fault really, I startled you.'

'Not as much as being smacked on the head with _that_ would have started me,' Beth admitted, nodding towards the thin but substantially heavy Maglite torch that had rolled a few feet away from the now-unconscious human next to her car door.

'Let me move that for you,' the vampire offered quickly, and unceremoniously lifted the man from floor, depositing him with a thud in the open trailer of the man's own Jeep. Beth caught a brief glimpse of the human man's bearded face as he was whisked past her, and shuddered. God knew what he had intended to do to her after hitting her with the torch. The path to her driver's door now unobstructed, she unlocked and opened the door, throwing her bag onto the passenger seat.

'That guy couldn't have taken the stairs up here so quickly,' Beth commented to the vampire, who had now retracted his fangs and had a polite smile fixed to his face. He looked like a banker, in his dark, thinly pin-striped suit and black overcoat. He was fresh-faced and dark-lashed, handsome but understated, and appeared to have been made a vampire some time in his late-twenties. Although who knew how long ago that had been.

'I'd have heard if the elevator doors opened after me, so he must have been waiting by his car here, when came up,' Beth continued. 'It wasn't him following me on the street tonight. Was it you?'

The vampire raised an eyebrow.

'You knew I was there? I do apologise, Miss, I was intending to be unobtrusive. It was not my intention to frighten you.'

'What's your name?' Beth asked.

'Harry, Miss. Harry Pendleton.'

'Well, Harry Pendleton, do you make it your business to run around the city saving damsels in distress?'

Harry looked amused, in a very polite way.

'I regret to say, Miss, that my presence here cannot be attributed to such noble aspirations.'

Beth sighed.

'Harry, is it possible that a bossy and exceptionally wealthy vampire called Josef Kostan asked you to follow me around?'

'Very possible, Miss,' Harry confirmed, eyes twinkling. 'Mr Kostan is very concerned with your safety. He told me you have a quite a talent for running into dangerous situations, and has tasked me with your protection.' He gave a half bow, which would have looked ridiculous from most other people, vampires or not. Harry looked like the sort of vampire that Josef surrounded himself with, Beth thought. He had his use for thugs, but often it was the clever, respectable, apparently house-broken vampires who could be the most dangerous and therefore the most valuable to him.

'Well that's very kind of you Harry,' Beth said, 'but you can tell Josef from me that he should butt out of my life. We have nothing more to say to each other and I neither want nor need his protection.' Her displeasure was clear from her stroppy tone, but Harry only smiled gently.

'With respect, Miss-'

'Oh, stop calling me 'Miss',' Beth interrupted him. 'My name is Beth.'

'As you like, Miss Beth', Harry continued unperturbed, 'but you did seem you were a little in need of some assistance tonight.'

'I could have taken him,' Beth argued. 'I have a taser.' She pulled it out of her waist band and pressed the button a couple of times, making short crackles of electricity flicker along the surface. Harry nodded and suppressed what Beth was horribly sure was a grin.

'Indeed,' the vampire said.

'That's not even the point,' Beth snapped at him. 'I don't want anything to do with Josef. If I get hurt or killed it's none of his business.' She reholstered the taser and sighed again, hands on hips. 'Look,' she said, more calmly, 'I'm grateful for your help tonight, and I know you're only doing your job, but please tell Josef to leave me alone. He's not even in L.A. anymore is he? And now, what, he's trying to control me from halfway around the world?'

'Trying to protect you,' Harry distinguished. 'Anyway, Mr Kostan has been back in L.A. for some weeks now.'

That was interesting. Josef had been out of the country for more or less the past six months. Even though Beth was not talking to him, every time he had left, a note of emergency contact numbers for his household and business staff had appeared at under her apartment door. The last she heard, Josef had been headed to Russia on business. Beth had never called a single one of those numbers.

'How long have you been watching me?' Beth asked, almost afraid of the answer.

Harry shifted, considering the blonde human woman.

'I'm not sure Mr Kostan-'

'How long?'

'Someone has been making sure you are safe every day and night since… well, for the past eight months.'

Beth's voice rose furiously.

'He's been having someone stalk me for eight months?' She made a strangled scream of pure frustration. 'And in the daytime too?'

'Mr Kostan does, of course, retain humans on his staff.'

Beth studied Harry while she gritted her teeth. The vampire did not seem remotely fazed by her displeasure and waited patiently.

'Did you kill that man?'

'Did I-?'

'The man you just put in his truck over there. He was unconscious when you picked him up. Is he dead now?'

Harry hesitated, before answering 'Yes. Does that bother you?'

'Did you really need to kill him?'

'You know what he wanted to do to you. He's probably done it to lots of women. Probably would have done it to more women if he had survived. Why would it bother you that he is dead?'

'You could have just handed him over to the Police,' Beth pointed out.

'With what evidence?' Harry rationalised. 'Besides, my orders are to kill anyone who is a threat to you.'

Beth closed her eyes and leaned against the side of her car.

'I'm tired, Harry,' she said. 'I'm tired of stupid vampire crap and dead bodies and secret underground rules. It's ruined everything. I'm sick of it all and I just want Josef to understand that and let me go. I'm just… tired.' The vampire nodded and reached slowly to take the keys from her hand.

'Allow me to drive you home, Miss Beth.'

'No-'

'Allow me to drive you home and I will pass on your concerns to Mr Kostan, I promise.'

Beth eyed Harry wearily. She was probably naïve beyond all belief to put any trust in another vampire, and she knew for a fact that Josef would not be deterred by any of her protests, but it was so tempting to let someone take care of her, just for a little while. Nodding, she let Harry see her into the passenger seat and then slide into the driver's seat next to her.

'Nice car,' he complimented, as he negotiated the convertible down the spiral ramp to the ground floor and onto the street.

'It's not mine.'

Harry did not respond to the sadness in Beth's voice, but soon started a soft melodic hum that sounded suspiciously like a lullaby.

'Harry?' Beth murmured sleepily, through a yawn. 'Did you have something to do with the Farrell brothers disappearing last month after sending me that death threat at the ADA's office?'

Harry chuckling was the last thing she remembered before she slipped into a sound, exhausted sleep.

_Many thanks for reading...I would love to read your review!_


	2. Chapter 2

**The dark side of forever**

_Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of any part of Moonlight- this is purely a not-for-profit fanfiction to pay respect to a great show I am gutted was cancelled. _

**Chapter 2**

When Beth woke up, it was Saturday afternoon and sunlight was streaming through her apartment. Groaning, she pulled herself upright and realised she was on top of her bedspread, fully dressed and covered only by her red throw blanket. The boots she had been wearing last night were stowed neatly next to her bed. Despite the strange ending to the night, and apparently having been carried unconscious from the car and put to bed by a strange vampire, Beth concluded that was the best nights, well days, sleep she had had in months.

After padding through to the kitchen and fixing a bowl of cereal for a very late breakfast, taking a quick shower and throwing some jeans and a sweater on, Beth looked for her keys. She quickly discovered them on the floor just inside the front door, where Harry had obviously posted them through the letterbox after he had locked the door from the outside. It was difficult to complain about someone looking after you that well, but Beth was fully prepared to make a long overdue call as soon as the sun set and tell Josef to get him and all of his lackeys, however polite and chivalrous they were, out of her life once and for all. Until nightfall, however, there was nothing she could do on that front, and it was only half past one.

Beth had not sat still for one day in the last seven and a half months, since the day she was pulled out of her two week bed bound pity party and back into work, if not life. Today was going to be no exception.

She typed her report from last night's investigations at the paper factory and saved it to one of the encrypted memory sticks Ben had given her. Being a freelance assistant to the Assistant District Attorney's office had been working well for Beth since… well, since eight months ago. Ben gave her no end of juicy stories to follow up on, and full technical support as she needed it. If she was being truthful, some days it was Ben Talbot who gave her a reason to keep going. He was good to work for, without ever trying to make her his partner, which she could not have handled. He was a good friend, without trying to become a lover, which she could not even contemplate. Best of all, Ben had things of his own going on that meant he was not breathing down her neck all the time, wanting to know if she was alright, or treating her like a breakable fragile ornament.

Slipping the memory stick into her pocket and picking up her shoulder bag, Beth headed for her car- left neatly parked in its usual space- and into the office.

Beth popped her head round Ben's office door and saw him engrossed in the papers spread over the entire surface of his desk. He did not hear her quiet knock on the door, or when she cleared her throat, but when she half shouted 'Ben!' he looked up, startled. Beth could not help but notice how he gathered up the papers and pressed the folder closed before she got as far as the desk.

Then he smiled easily and she berated herself for being more paranoid than usual.

'Beth,' Ben greeted her warmly, although his smile was a bit brittle. 'It's a Saturday- you have to stop working sometime.'

'I could say the same for you,' Beth retorted.

'Well I am an ADA. I'm a very important man.'

'Oh I know,' Beth smiled. 'I saw the memo. You're a _very_ important man and sequins are on trend this winter.'

'You didn't finish reading it. It also said Beth Turner must get a life at the weekend.'

'This is why I never read your memos.'

Ben laughed and Beth sat down in the chair in front of his desk. She slid the memory stick across the wooden surface to him.

'Seriously,' she said, 'I just came by to drop this off. It's everything ADA Johnson will need. It was almost appallingly easy to get the dirt on this one.'

'That's my golden girl. And now you're going to have fun somewhere to celebrate? Doing something that isn't work?'

'Right after you, boss,' Beth quipped. She started reaching for her bag when she saw a look flash across Ben's face, one that she knew all too well from family and friends over the last year. It could only mean an 'I'm just worried about you' lecture was on its way. 'Actually, I am going to have to be off,' she said hastily. 'To get ready. I'm going out tonight.'

Ben's eyes widened slightly, before he composed his face into something more neutral.

'Oh?' he enquired mildly.

'Mmm. I'm going to see an old friend,' Beth said. It was not technically a lie, if you read 'old friend' in the sense that she nowadays could not stand to look at him. And she had been slowly coming to the conclusion over the course of the day that a phone call probably was not going to cut it is she wanted to shake this particular deviant. 'I think you might have met him once before, last year: Josef Kostan.'

Beth was unprepared for how Ben's face suddenly darkened and he leaned forward in his chair.

'Kostan? What do you need to see him for?'

Beth frowned, uncertainly. 'Like I said, he's an old friend. He's been out of the country for a while, and we have some unfinished business to take care of. What's your problem, Talbot?'

Ben sighed. 'I just think he's bad news. Beth, be careful, okay? That guy is dangerous.'

Inwardly, Beth groaned at the irony. Josef had a reputation for being a dangerous businessman that preceded him, but most people had no clue that he was an ancient and powerful vampire capable of almost anything, wrapped up in the pretty body of a young twenty-something playboy. If people like Ben had heard and seen things about Josef that caused them concern, and their gut instinct was telling them something was wrong, they had no idea how right they were. Having said that, Beth knew that, unfortunately, Josef would kill anyone who so much as thought about harming a hair on her head. He thought of her as family.

'I'll be fine,' she assured Ben, who looked anything but convinced. 'I thought you wanted me to get out of the office!'

'I do. I know he's your friend, but, let's just say Kostan's name has come up on a… a list that you don't want to see your friends on.'

Beth could not think what he was talking about, but, from the unconscious flicker of Ben's eyes as he mentioned the 'list', she had half an idea it was linked to that folder of papers he was leaning possessively on.

'Okay,' she said, hesitantly. 'I'll be careful. There'll be a bunch of people there anyway.' Which was true, considering Josef's house was one continuous party and he never went anywhere without an entourage. The only problem was that safety in numbers did not really apply when over half of those people were vampires.

As she left the office, Beth vowed to get a look at that file no matter what it took. True, Josef was none of her concern anymore, nor was anything to do with the vampire world, but her curiosity was well and truly piqued. Though 'the list' was no doubt connected to Josef's shark–like business dealings rather than his vampire antics, just in case it was anything to do with Mi… Either way, she was kidding herself if she thought she did not care enough to find out what the hell Ben was on to.

_Don't worry chickens, Josef is on the way... please review if you would be so kind! Thanks for reading. _


	3. Chapter 3

_Thank you to all those who reviewed the first two chapters. You really inspired me to carry on and write the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it (no 'cure' in sight, Redlioness62 !). _

**The dark side of forever**

_Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of any part of Moonlight- this is purely a not-for-profit fanfiction to pay respect to a great show I am gutted was cancelled. _

**Chapter 3**

Even with swinging by the market to restock her vegetable rack, cleaning all the mirrors in her apartment and reorganising her guest room cupboards, Beth was still left twiddling her thumbs waiting for the sun to set. She put on a fresh pair of cream slacks and a black sweater. She tied her hair back into a loose bun, secured it with a jewelled dragonfly clip and dug a turquoise scarf from the recesses of her wardrobe. A fresh attempt at concealing her perpetually dark-circled, red-rimmed eyes and a dot of gloss to her bottom lip and she was pleased with the result. She was not dressing up for Josef, she told herself, but this was not going to be a pleasant evening and looking like something the cat dragged in was not going to help her keep her nerve in a showdown with the ever-composed Josef Kostan.

Darkness fell, and Beth swept out of her apartment. The waiting had given her time to remember exactly how incensed she was about Josef's unwanted interference in her life. Now, she was on a mission to put her foot down once and for all.

It was creepy knowing that Harry or another of Josef's disciples was probably watching her from some concealed dark spot, as she pointed the Mercedes in the direction of the hills. Pulling up outside the gigantic embellished gates at the end of Josef's driveway was an uncomfortable reminder of the past, which Beth tried to shake off as she told the voice on the intercom system her name.

'Drive right on up, Miss Turner.'

Steeling herself, Beth crawled up the long and elegantly lit driveway and pulled the Mercedes up right at the bottom of the stone steps leading to the front doors. The house, which Josef had once told her was designed especially for him, could have been a modern monstrosity with anyone else at the helm. As it was, the place was all clean lines and simple elegance, managing to be at once impressive but less aggressive than, for instance, the skyscraping city tower block of offices housing Josef's L.A. business concerns. She and Mick had spent countless evenings here; at one time, she had felt right at home in Josef's luxurious home.

Before she had even removed the key from the ignition, a figure appeared at her window, opening the car door and offering a hand to her.

'Thank you, Harry,' Beth said, with a tight smile, begrudgingly accepting his assistance and watching a human valet whisk the car away immediately.

The English vampire frowned slightly.

'You are upset about last night, Miss Beth?'

'I'm just upset full stop,' Beth said. Out of an inbred sense of politeness, she could not help but add, 'Thank you, though, for getting me home safely.' She gave Harry a small smile. 'Don't take this the wrong way, but I hope I won't be seeing you after tonight. So, thank you.'

Harry nodded, reserved as Beth remembered, but quite at ease.

'Don't mention it, Miss Beth. Shall I take you to Mr Kostan now?'

Beth let Harry usher her through the front doors and straight through the main body of the house, where Josef did his entertaining. She was willing to bet a large number of beautiful young 'freshies' were warming up to get the night's partying underway in there, though it was early yet. Beth could hear the music and tinkling laughter drifting out as she followed Harry down the marble corridor and up the grand spiralling staircase. Soon, Beth knew where they were headed.

Harry knocked on the solid oak door of Josef's first floor private study.

Beth had been in this room many times before, but it had been over six months since she last came to Josef's house at all. For an extremely old vampire, Josef looked as handsome and youthful as ever. His tasteful Armani lounge suit was without a crease; he looked smart, beautiful and completely deadly. Beth could never tell exactly how he achieved that, but she could almost narrow it down to the strength and poise of his body, the ethereal paleness of his skin and the ageless chasm yawning behind dark, sparkling eyes. He was standing at the window, but moved towards the centre of the room when Beth stepped inside.

'Beth,' he greeted her with a languid smile, as if it had not been months since they last spoke. 'You look beautiful.'

'Liar,' she returned, wanly.

'No,' he said softly. 'Really. It's good to see you.'

He stood directly in front of her, slid one finger under her chin and tilted her face up to meet his gaze. Against her will, Beth's eyes glistened with unshed tears.

'Josef…' Her voice wavered. Beth could remember all the reasons that she was angry with him, why she would never forgive him, but, looking into Josef's eyes, the one reason why she was inextricably bound to him was forefront of her mind. _Mick._

In what seemed like the very next second, he suddenly snapped out of the intense stare and smiled pleasantly.

'Can I get you a drink?'

'Josef,' she continued, ignoring his question, with a firmer voice now. She had blinked the wetness out of her eyes. 'I'm not staying. I just came to tell you to stop having your people follow me.'

'Ah, yes, Harry mentioned you were not too happy with your security detail.' Josef's lifted hand to rub his forehead, and suddenly it was as if he let the mask slip away. Beth realised Josef was tired, too. In whatever way vampires get tired. He looked at her and said quietly: 'I can't say I'm surprised at your reaction; I do, after all, know you pretty well, Beth. But I'm not sorry for trying to protect you. I'm glad Harry was there last night, when that guy-'

He broke off, not bothering to finish the sentence. Crossing to the mini-bar, he poured two generous glasses of brandy, and held one out to Beth. When she did not move to grasp the tumbler, he stepped in front of her and leaned to place the glass on the sideboard she was next to, just by her hand. He took a long drink from his own glass, and looked back at her.

'We used to be friends, Beth. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm kind of discerning. A lot of enemies, not so many friends. Of course I'm going to use everything in my power to keep you safe.'

Josef let his gaze drift to the wall behind her, then focus in on the drink she had not touched. 'It's what Mick would have wanted,' he said, so quietly he might not have meant to say it aloud.

Beth had walked into Josef's study with righteous anger burning in her gut. Then, the wind had gone from her sails and a sort of exhausted stasis had come over her. She simply didn't feel she had the energy or will to fight with Josef, she was just sad and empty. Now though, the fiery rage burst back into her stomach and her heart expanded painfully. All the pain, misery and fear of the last eight months surged up inside her, and it was almost unbearable.

'_Don't_,' she said, her voice tight with white-hot anger. 'Don't say his name. You do _not_ get to say his name.'

Pain flashed in Josef's eyes, and that face, false with youth and innocence, twisted into something boyish and vulnerable. Beth refused to acknowledge what she knew to be deceit.

'You _had_ a friend. You had the best friend, the best person I've ever…' She broke off, furiously rubbing traitorous tears from her face. 'Mick was a better friend than someone like you deserves. How dare you throw your money and connections at me, like you have any right to be my friend, to try to protect me? With all your wealth and power and international connections, centuries of accumulation and networking, how do you dare speak of using that power, when you refuse to use it to save Mick?'

It was no use. The tears were free-falling down her cheeks, making her skin blotchy and red and her voice choked. Josef was looking like every word from her mouth was slicing into his flesh, but Beth continued undeterred. Too much had been suppressed for so long, and there was no stopping it now the dam had burst.

'And I _begged_ you,' Beth cried, almost screeching at the pale, silent vampire. 'He's your _best friend_. Why are you such a coward? Why won't you help him?' She slammed one fist ineffectually against the sideboard, sloshing whisky onto the polished oak. Her voice quietened, as the strength drained from her. 'Why won't you help me?' she asked, plaintively.

Josef looked aghast at the sobbing blonde woman. He shifted uncomfortably where he stood, took a few steps towards her and reached out. Almost on instinct, his arm went to her shoulder, but something made him stop and pull back at the last moment. He settled for standing close, his eyes half shut in pain, shaking his head from side to side.

'Beth,' he said, and her eyes rose to meet his, pleading silently. He shook his head slightly. 'We've talked about this.' His voice was oh so gentle, like someone talking to a scared creature in the wild, hoping the calming tone of voice will stop an otherwise vicious attack. 'You have to accept reality. Mick is… Mick's dead, Beth. He's gone. It's not healthy for you to go on like this, deluding yourself that-'

'You don't know that,' she bit out at him. 'Not for sure. We can't be sure. There was never a-'

'What? A body?' Josef said, quietly. 'Beth, Mick was a vampire. There wouldn't be a body left.'

'I know that.'

'Then-?'

'How do we know what happened when Lance took him? There's still hope, Josef. Until I see some kind of proof, or hear Lance say the words that he killed Mick, I refuse to believe it's true.'

Josef sighed, heavily.

'Do you think I want Mick to be dead?' he asked, and his voice was so sad it would have chilled Beth, if she was not already consumed with her own feelings. 'Mick was like a brother to me. If there was any hope… But there isn't. Lance is an ancient and extremely powerful vampire. You don't just go up against him and expect to survive. He didn't track down and abduct Mick to have a few strong words with him, Beth. That's not how it works.'

He turned to her now, his voice getting stronger, more intense. He gripped Beth's shoulders, even though she tried to shake off his hold.

'You must stop this,' Josef told her. 'You must accept what has happened. If you ask too many questions of the wrong people, if you try anything stupid to get to Lance, he will have no hesitation in killing you. You are nothing to him. He will not even blink.' Josef shook her shoulders, hard, for good measure. 'I cannot let Mick down on this one,' he explained, desperately. 'You can't die, Beth. Please, don't fight me on this.'

Beth was gritting her teeth in frustration.

'If there was anything I could do I would do it,' she replied, doggedly. 'I would risk my life to get him back. But you,' she glared at Josef. 'You won't do anything. You won't risk your own skin to find out for certain if Mick is dead or alive. You could find out where Lance is. You could do _something_. And all you can talk about is giving up on Mick and keeping _me_ safe. It means nothing!'

'You know I checked every source I had,' Josef argued. 'No-one could find any trace of Mick after Lance took him. This is how the vampire world works, Beth. Mick angered someone too powerful. He paid the price in blood.'

Beth shut her eyes, biting hard on her bottom lip. When she felt like she had her emotions under control, she looked at Josef, drawing herself up in front of him. He looked tired, and sad, but she didn't care. She didn't understand how he could give up so easily. Beth was no fool: she knew that Lance was not someone to go up against. Mick had been incredibly brave and noble, and she loved him so much for it, but he had also been foolhardy. Still, despite Lance's reputation and Josef's prioritisation of self-preservation, Beth had stupidly believed that, for Mick, Josef would take a stand.

She had been wrong, and although this news was eight months old, the reality that she was on her own stabbed through her like brand new pain. She was alone and she was too weak, too human, to do anything to help Mick. Josef, who had all the power, who walked, traded and thrived in that night world she could not access, had faithlessly abandoned Mick to his fate.

'Josef,' she said, in a low voice that sounded terrible to his ears. The two of them locked gazes, electricity practically crackling between them, so charged was the air. 'I hate you. I never want to see you again. I swear to God, if I find you have anyone following me again, I will find a way to hurt you.' She paused, and swallowed hard. She enunciated the next words very clearly. 'Leave. Me. Alone.'

Josef continued to stare at her for a moment. Then, he re-arranged his face into a perfect, blank mask, devoid of emotion. This might be the face he used when signing a mundane business contract, was the thought that flashed through Beth's mind.

'Fine,' he said. 'If that's what you want.'

'I mean it, Josef.' She didn't believe for a moment that he would actually give in.

He nodded, brusquely, and sat down behind his desk. Perfectly calmly, he said to Beth:

'I'm here if you change your mind. If you need anything: money, _anything_-'

'I won't.'

Josef dipped his head to that. He gave a tired half smile,

'Goodbye then, Beth Turner.'

Nothing's changed, Beth thought grimly. I haven't had his support for the past eight months, and I don't have it now. I'm no worse off after tonight. Still, there was a strange, clenching feeling in her stomach, like something awful was happening. Like she was closing the door on her last glimmer of hope.

Without answering his goodbye, Beth spun and stormed out of the study, practically running through the corridor, down the staircase and through the ground floor rooms until she burst out onto the front driveway, gasping for air. She didn't care if Josef could hear every tremulous breath and quickening heartbeart of her escape.

Beth Turner was not about to give up on the man- the vampire- who had saved her life in every way possible. She had used every human resource she could beg, buy or steal access to, but she had reached the end of the road. If Josef would not help her, she would have to find another way.

Josef watched from the window as Beth drove Mick's car back down his driveway and out of sight. He could hear it for a little while longer, before the sound blended with the rest of the L.A. noise and he turned back into the room.

Harry was watching his master, his chiselled face calm but quizzical.

'Would it not be better to tell Miss Beth the truth, Sir?' Harry asked. 'About everything you have done to try to save Mick ? Surely, she would not feel as she does at the moment?'

'No,' Josef said sternly. 'Beth must never find out.'

'I see,' Harry said. 'You want her to believe Mr is dead. Even though you know that is not true.' His smooth voice was neither reproachful nor forgiving.

Josef slumped into the plush executive's chair at his desk.

'If what I'm trying to do doesn't work,' he explained to the English vampire, 'which it probably won't, Mick will die anyway. Beth has already suffered through enough. I refuse to get her hopes up on such a slim chance and I will not let her find out what Lance has done to Mick these past months, if he's only going to die horribly anyway.'

'You are protecting her,' Harry stated.

'She's the only person I have left worth protecting,' Josef said, then looked surprised at himself for voicing that to the hired help.

'Even though Miss Beth hates you now?'

'Yes, well,' Josef smiled grimly, 'as long as she's alive to hate me, I don't care. Looking after her is the least I can do for Mick, in any case.'

Harry raised an eyebrow, but did not comment on the sense of Josef's scheming.

'Sir, Miss Beth's security detail?' he questioned his boss, just before his solid frame disappeared through the door. He paused, and caught the pointed look that Josef threw his way. 'Very well, Sir,' Harry confirmed. 'It will remain in effect. I'll make sure she doesn't see any of us again.'

'That, I think, is essential,' Josef noted wryly, to the bodyguard. 'I'll be leaving in the morning, going back to France. I expect regular updates.'

'Of course,' Harry nodded, demurely. A shiver went through him at the thought what awaited Josef in Europe. He paused, turning in the doorway to look at Josef. 'Sir?'

'Hmm?' Josef glanced up.

'Good luck,' Harry said, seriously, and shut the door behind him.

_Thanks for reading and I would love to have your comments/ reviews. _


	4. Chapter 4

**The dark side of forever**

_Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of any part of Moonlight- this is purely a not-for-profit fanfiction to pay respect to a great show I am gutted was cancelled. _

**Chapter 4**

'Open up, Logan,' Beth demanded, pounding harder with her fist on the apartment door. It was nine o'clock in the evening and she knew for a fact that the vampire was at home. Beth had been staking out the exit since she saw him go in some seven hours ago. Dating Mick for all that time meant she knew the score. Logan would definitely be out of his freezer by now, well-rested and rejuvenated for what she needed him to do. 'Come on,' she insisted, an edge of slight desperation creeping into her voice. 'I know you are in there. I'm not leaving until you-'

The door creaked open, and Logan's chubby face appeared in the gap.

'Oh, hi, Beth,' he said, voice falsely bright and cheerful. 'What… er, what do you want?' Beth watched his bobbling Adam's apple with fascination as Logan gulped nervously. Strange, but Logan always was a bit odd. Beth pasted a friendly and non-threatening smile on her face.

'Can I come in?'

'Come in?' Logan echoed, eyes darting furiously around.

'Yes,' Beth repeated patiently, wondering what the hell was wrong with him. 'Can I come inside?' When Logan did not answer she raised an eyebrow. 'Logan, I need to talk to you.'

'Er, yeah. Sure,' Logan muttered, but it seemed begrudging when he yanked the apartment door open wide enough for Beth to slip past him. It had been a while since she had been there, but Beth was reassured to see Logan's place still looked like the lair of a mad computer genius living inside his parent's basement. She stepped carefully down the metal stairs and around the mess of video games, weird looking tech and… were those empty blood bags? Oh, gross. This was hardly ideal for Beth's purposes, but she did not have a whole lot of choice. It was not like her i-phone was chock full of friendly vampire contacts.

'What can I do for you?' Logan asked, twitching one hand against his jeans, like an involuntary muscle memory from playing too much Guitar Hero. For her part, Beth stood kind of awkwardly, clutching her handbag tightly. Logan may seem like a benign computer nerd, but it was all too easy to forget that he was also a not-so-young vampire, who could snap her neck like a twig without breaking a sweat. This kind of brought her to the point of why she was here, in said vampire's apartment, alone in all her human frailty.

'I need a favour,' she began. When Logan didn't try to eject her from his home immediately, she continued: 'I have money.'

'What's the favour?'

Beth took a deep breath and looked at Logan almost apologetically.

'I need you to make me into a vampire. I want you to turn me.'

For a very long, gobsmacked moment Logan just gaped at her. Then, he began shaking his head and swaying slightly from side to side in consternation.

'Hell, no. No, no, no, nooo,' he said, stuttering as he backed himself practically into the giant flatscreen on the far wall.

Beth put her hands up.

'No, I know, it doesn't usually work like this. It's a bit weird. I can pay you though, and I really, really need this favour, Logan. I don't know who else to ask.'

'How about no-one?' Logan suggested, still looking at her like she was the kryptonite to his Superman.

'I thought you were my friend.'

'Yeah? Well, friends don't let friends… eat their friends,' Logan retorted, bug eyed and twitchy as all hell.

'Well, I don't want you to kill me. I want you to turn me,' Beth frowned at him. Logan looked like a geeky teenager about to pick up his date for prom, like if he was human he might actually be sweating by now. Beth had been prepared to do some convincing, probably bribe and potentially even threaten Logan, but this was a more negative reaction than she was expecting. 'Logan, what the hell is the matter with you?'

'I can't do it,' he said firmly. 'He'll kill me.'

'Who? Josef?' Beth asked. 'Josef never needs to know. Logan, I promise as soon as it's done, I'm leaving L.A. I'm leaving the country actually. If it helps, I'll promise not to come back.'

'Oh, great,' Logan muttered. 'That would go down so much better.'

Beth was starting to get irate now.

'Damn it, Logan,' she snapped. 'This is none of Josef's business. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't even be asking you for this.'

Logan just stared at her blankly.

'I need to find Mick,' she said, running her hands through her loose hair in frustration. She did not notice whatever it was that flickered behind Logan's eyes at the mention of his old friend. 'Josef has done _nothing_. He just accepts that Mick is dead and he won't help me look for him. He says it's too dangerous, and maybe he's right, but I can't just sit here and let another eight months go by. Until I have proof that Mick is dead, I have to try to find him. I can't just move on, like Josef tells me to.'

Sighing, Beth sank into a dubious looking hammock chair and looked up tiredly at Logan. 'I've done everything I can to look for Mick the human way, but nothing works. Every lead has gone cold. I need to find Lance, and to do that I need to move in the vampire world. Josef won't do it on my behalf, so…' She trailed off and shrugged, spreading her hands to indicate Logan and herself. 'I need your help.'

Logan said nothing.

Beth nodded minutely. 'And I have five thousand dollars,' she added, hopefully. 'Logan, say something.'

'No,' Logan said, snapping out of his semi-trance and starting to pace the tiny gap between the wall and the coffee table. 'I mean, yes, to the saying something, but a big fat no to the other part. I'm sorry, Beth. I'm really sorry about Mick. But I happen to enjoy living my undead life and turning you into a vampire is pretty much the dumbest thing anyone who doesn't want to be killed in a painful, creative and drawn-out way could do.'

'I can get maybe another two thousand…'

'It's not about the money,' Logan cut in, over Beth's desperate plea. Her pretty blue eyes hardened as she realised he was serious.

'You know, I can find another vampire to do it,' she said, coldly. 'I actually thought you might feel some kind of loyalty to Mick, and be a friend to me.'

'Trust me,' Logan said, seriously, with fear shining in his eyes. 'I _am_ being a friend to you. A newly born vampire would stand no chance confronting a monster like Lance. Even if you could find him, which I highly doubt.'

'That's my risk to take, don't you think?'

'I don't think Josef Kostan will see it that way.'

'I don't give a rat's ass what Josef Kostan thinks. Why do you think Josef will be so opposed to me becoming a vampire, anyway? If anything, he was in favour of it when Mick and I were… Before Mick was taken. Josef used to say if you want to be with someone forever, you have to live forever. Why would he care?'

'Maybe because he respects Mick's wishes?'

Beth huffed in disbelief.

'Like I'm some kind of possession left behind, that he can dictate what happens to?'

Logan growled in annoyance and waved frustrated hands at Beth.

'Okay then, how about because the process itself is dangerous? Tons of people don't manage the transition.'

'I'm more likely to die if I go around asking random vampires to bite me than if you do it,' Beth pointed out. Shaking her head, she stuffed the money back in her bag and started for the stairs. 'But if that's what I have to do, well, fine. I will fight with every last breath in my body to find Mick. If by any small chance he's still alive, then he will know I _never_ gave up on him. I _will_ find a vampire willing to turn me, and I _will_ go and find Lance and make him tell me what happened to Mick. You and Josef are just as bad and selfish as each other, and as far as I'm concerned you can rot together in hell. You may be vampires, but that is no excuse for being so inhuman.'

A blurry shape whooshed past her, and suddenly she found herself face to face with Logan, who was standing on the staircase blocking her exit. Quite surprisingly, Beth felt her pulse rate pick up in trepidation, but Logan only wrung his hands and stared in agony at his unlikely friend.

'Okay, stop. Please, stop,' he said, hastily. 'Please don't do that. You can't go and ask any old vampire to turn you. Half of them would take your money, and then just drain you and leave you dead.'

Beth looked at Logan's overwrought expression with unease.

'What choice have you left me?' she asked him, stiffly.

'Look,' Logan said, then paused and sighed heavily. 'If I tell you this, you have to promise not to tell Josef it was me who told you. He made me swear secrecy.'

'What is it?' Logan looked more serious than she had ever seen him, except maybe at Emma's execution. 'Fine,' she nodded in agreement, 'I promise. It's not like I ever intend to speak to Josef again anyway.'

Logan ushered Beth back down the stairs to the sofa, and sat down facing her.

'You may want to rethink that,' he said, wincing.

'Why?'

'Because Josef knows exactly where Lance is, and he's on his way there right now.'

'What do you mean?' Beth asked, completely confused.

'I mean that for the past eight months, Josef has done nothing but travel about the world following every lead to try and find that sonofabitch that took Mick,' Logan explained. 'And, about five weeks ago, he found him.'

_**8 months ago…**_

_'Honey, sorry I'm late. Work was crazy, but I'm here now and I've got pizza and a bottle of really nice Merlot,' Beth called out invitingly, as she let herself into Mick's apartment, balancing a grocery bag, a pizza box and an oversize handbag precariously in her arms. She half-turned to nudge the door closed behind her with one foot. 'Well, okay, the pizza is for me, but you are a sucker for a good Merlot,' she continued._

_Making her way to the kitchen counter, she deposited the goods on the surface and quickly unpacked a box of tomatoes, salad leaves and a ready-made chocolate mousse into the fridge. As she did, Beth carried on talking. 'I've thought about what you said, about selling my apartment. I know I stay here most of the time, and it makes sense. I think it's actually a good idea. I guess,' Beth grimaced into the vegetable crisper box, and retrieved a bag of wrinkly old mushrooms and a dubious looking half eggplant to be binned. The problem with only one person eating was a lot got wasted. 'Well, I guess I just needed a few days to get my head around the whole idea of not having my own place as a kind of back up? You know? I mean, me moving in here officially is a big step. But I want you to know I'm ready for it. Baby, I have no hesitations about us.' _

_Beth glanced up to look for her boyfriend, but the tastefully furnished apartment, now mellowed from its previous bachelor pad status by the addition of a number of couple-friendly soft furnishings Beth had been subtly placing over the past year, did not reveal Mick's whereabouts. _

_There was music drifting down from the upstairs mezzanine; some of that old-fashioned jazz that Mick was addicted to. Smiling, Beth reached for two long-stemmed glasses from the cabinet. After dating Mick for over a year, Beth knew what would get her man vampire-speeding down the stairs quicker than she could say 'love-bite'. Although it had taken a long time to convince Mick that Beth really wanted for them to do it, they had finally taken their physical relationship to the next level a few months ago, and, if possible, sharing her blood with Mick (in a situation not involving his imminent death) had made sex with him even more amazing. Beth felt closer to him than ever, and right now she wouldn't change one thing about their strange but wonderful life together. _

'_Mick,' she said, in a low sultry voice that she knew his vampire hearing would pick up from the upper floor, even over the music. The wine bottle made a soft pop as she levered the cork out of the neck. 'I'll make yours a cocktail with some fresh A0 negative, if you promise to make it worth my while later.' Though Beth knew Mick would enjoy tasting her blood no matter what, she was extra glad that her rare blood type was damn near irresistbale to him._

_Beth waited for the blur of colour to streak down the stairs, ending with Mick standing before her, all heated eyes, firm sculpted muscles and that irresistible grin. She waited, but nothing happened._

'_Mick?' _

_Beth was starting to get an unsettled feeling. Where was Mick? The lights and the music were on and Beth knew he had been home an hour earlier when he responded to her text message telling him she was running late. _

'_Calm down super-sleuth,' she murmured to herself, putting the Merlot back on the counter. 'He probably just popped out to the 7-11 for something. Probably something for his needy human girlfriend. Like milk. Or bread.' But she knew they had both in the kitchen already. _

_The bedroom upstairs was empty and so, when she pressed the combination on the electronic keypad to get into the hidden room, was Mick's freezer. _

_Beth was coming back down the stairs when she saw it. The door to Mick's study was ajar and from this angle she could see through the gap. She could see the dark, viscous puddle on the hard wood floor. Suddenly, Beth's knees felt weak, but she tripped down the steps as fast she could and raced to pull open the study door._

_Oh, God. Beth's hands flew to her mouth as she surveyed the chaos before her. Mick's usually neat and orderly study was in upheaval, with broken furniture and scattered files all over the floor. The heavy metallic desk was split clean in two, the centre crushed down to the floor like a large weight had smashed down on it. Beth's toe hit something, and when she looked down she saw the oversize glass paperweight she had brought Mick back as a corny present from her work trip to Denver last August. It was cracked and covered on one side with a slick red coating. _

_There was blood everywhere. Large patches seeping into wooden floor and white throw rugs, sprays up the walls and across the scattered papers, smears across picture glass and on the surfaces of upturned armchairs and filing cabinets. Beth had been around violence for long enough to know how vicious a fight there must have been to shed this much blood between vampires. And it was definitely vampires; if this had been a human attacker, even a group of them, she would be seeing Mick standing in the middle of this mess, rubbing an achy shoulder and waxing lyrical about the needlessness of violence. _

_But Mick was not here. Panic bloomed like a black hole inside her. _

_Stumbling across the room, Beth followed the noticeable smears of blood drawn in two thick, patchy trails across the floor, towards the window. The attractive slanted window panes that Beth knew for a fact were reinforced glass were shattered and the frames snapped in the centre to create a billowing hole in the wall. Beth trod recklessly over the crunched glass and dragged a stool from the corner to balance on. Now higher up, she leaned as far out of the window as she could and looked down. It was a long drop, but any vampire could easy make the two storey fall to the next level of roof garden on this side of the building. For a wild moment, Beth considered trying to follow, but the sudden nausea that overtook her fortunately prevented any such idiocy, which could only have resulted in her death or serious injury. Her head swam and her breathing was coming too fast. For once, the girl who never stayed behind, never backed down or kept still, was paralyzed with helplessness._

_Almost on autopilot, Beth did the only thing she could. Her hands trembled as she tugged the phone off Mick's desk and pressed '2' on the speed dial. _

_'I need you to come over here, right now,' she said, in a low scratchy whisper, when he answered. _

_Then, Beth backed into the corner of the room and sank down to the floor. She barely noticed the grazes to her hands as she pressed down on tiny shards of glass. She ran two hands through her hair, brought them back to press against the sides of her face, and then hastily removed them as she felt wetness on her skin. Her hands were covered in blood. _

_*_

_Josef arrived at Mick's apartment barely fifteen minutes after Beth called, and found her curled up in the corner of the destroyed office, covered in blood and shaking like a leaf._

'_Beth?'_

_The room stank of fresh blood. Josef could distinguish the smell of Mick's from other vampire blood, and the tantalising aroma of Beth's AO negative from across the room. In a blur of speed, Josef was crouched in front of the blonde woman, gripping her chin and lifting her face up for inspection._

'_Where are you hurt?'_

_Beth stared glassy eyed at him, then sniffed and shook her head. _

'_I'm not. It's just… my hands.' She lifted her scratched palms towards him, and looked impassively as Josef cradled them gently in his own. _

'_Your face is covered in blood.'_

'_It's just from my hands and… other stuff I've touched.' Beth's traumatised eyes flickered around the bloody room. _

'_Are you sure you're not hurt anywhere else?' Josef asked gently._

'_I'm fine,' Beth sniffed. 'I wasn't here. I just came over and found it… like this.' She looked up at Josef, wide eyed and shell-shocked. 'I don't know where Mick is.' _

'_It's okay,' he hushed her._

'_I think they took him through the window. There's a patio about two storeys down.' Beth's face looked strained with the difficulty of concentrating through the shock. 'I spoke to Mick about an hour before I got here. Well, he left me a voicemail. I was late coming over…' Her voice cracked and Josef looked grim. _

'_Hold on,' he said. It only took him twenty five seconds to blur out of the room and return with a cold washcloth, which he pressed to her bleeding hands. Pulling her into his arms, Josef lifted Beth with ease and carried her steadily out of Mick's office and into the main apartment. He set her down on one of the large sofas and straightened back up. _

'_I'm going to have a look outside,' he told her. 'Just stay here for a minute.' _

_Josef disappeared and for once Beth did as she was told and stayed put. When Josef came back, his young beautiful face was twisted in anger. Beth listened to him barking orders into his cell phone, as he paced the space between the office doorway and the living area. _

'_If someone doesn't have information for me in the next five minutes, people are going to lose more than their jobs,' he snapped at the hapless employee on the other end of the conversation. 'I want to know names and addresses on every visiting vampire in L.A. And get Keisha over here to collect blood samples. If any vampire in the area knows these scents, I want to know before sunrise. Are the CCTV and travel checks set up?' There was a brief pause while Josef listened to the answer. 'Good. Anyone without a job can get out on the street and start looking. I want every single employee brought in on this, I don't care if it's their night off.' Josef snapped the phone shut and ran a hand through his short hair. He smiled tightly at Beth._

'_Did you find anything outside?' Beth asked him._

'_Nothing helpful. They definitely went that way though. Three vamps, and Mick was with them.' Josef didn't add that there was more of Mick's blood on the pavement below, where he had obviously been dragged along, likely unconscious. 'As far as I can tell, they all went over the wall.'_

'_So they took him. He's not dead.' Beth said, more to herself than to Josef._

'_If he was dead then there wouldn't have been a body to carry out,' Josef confirmed. _

'_But who?' Beth wondered. 'Who would want to do this to Mick? Why would anyone want to?'_

_Josef hesitated. There weren't many vampires who would be stupid enough to try to kidnap Mick , as well as being Josef Kostan's best friend, he was popular with the whole community. There were even fewer he could think of with the juice or motivation to pull it off. _

'_I'm doing everything I can to find out,' was all he said to Beth. 'I'm sure we'll know more soon.'_

'_And then?' Beth asked, weakly._

'_Then we'll get him back and I'll make sure anyone who had anything to do with this dies a slow and painful death,' Josef said, almost brightly. He noticed that Beth was looking a little better, now that the shock was wearing off._

'_What can I do to help?' Beth's voice was still a bit shaky, but determined. _

'_You can let me take you to my house,' Josef said seriously. 'Until I know what the hell is going on, I'd rather you are somewhere safe. And you'll be on the scene when we get some information.' _

_Beth nodded. _

'_Are you good to walk?'_

_Beth sat up straight, redid her ponytail and reached out to take the hand that Josef offered._

'_I'm fine. Sorry I spaced on you. I've got myself together now, I promise,' she told Josef. 'Let's find these guys and get to the painful death part.'_

'_Thatta girl,' Josef smirked, pulling her to her feet._

_They stood facing each other and Beth gripped Josef's arm tightly._

'_Thank you,' Beth whispered._

'_He's my best friend.'_

'_I know. Just the same.'_

_Josef nodded, and patted her hand awkwardly. _

'_Plus, I'm not totally averse to you either, Blondie.' Beth gave his hand a small squeeze._

'_Okay,' she said, visibly gathering her energy. 'You carry on doing… what the hell it is you're doing. Just give me a minute to grab my bag and I'll let you take me to the house of horrors.'_

'_You love my house.'_

'_It's the frickin' vampire playboy mansion.'_

'_Like I said, you love my h-' Josef broke off when Beth smacked him in the arm._

'_I'll be one minute, idiot.'_

_Josef stood in the centre of Mick's apartment as Beth trotted up the stairs to gather a few overnight essentials. His gaze fixed on the kitchen counter and walking over to it he flicked the lid back from the abandoned pizza box. His face wrinkled in distaste at the congealed cold contents._

_Flicking his phone open he made one more call._

'_Get some pepperoni pizza ordered to the house.'_

_*_

_At some untold hour of the night, Beth woke up on a plush kingsize bed in Josef's house. Frowning, she took a second before the horrific events of the past twenty-six hours rushed back to her with a nasty jolt, causing her to half leap off the bed. The last thing she remembered was being downstairs in Josef's study, while he and a team of crisp, efficient looking professionals co-ordinated the fruitless search for Mick. Sometimes, Josef would disappear for an hour to 'talk to' whichever hapless person, human or otherwise, his team had dragged in on suspicion of having relevant information. This was for Mick, and Beth felt surprisingly okay about closing her eyes to whatever Josef was doing in these 'talks'. Josef's housekeeper had tried to force feed Beth pizza and lemonade, hot tea and biscuits at various intervals. She remembered sitting on the leather couch behind Josef's desk, leaning her head on the back as the black knot of fear festered and grew in the pit of her stomach. It had been so long since she slept. Then… Well, Josef must have brought her up here after she passed out._

_The knock on the door made her jump, but it was only Josef. _

'_You're awake,' he said, stating the obvious as he stepped into the room. _

_Beth had never seen Josef look so terrible. His dishevelled clothes were hardly the issue, but the awful expression on his face chilled Beth to the very core. With a deep sense of foreboding, she sank back to sit on the edge of the bed. _

'_What is it?' she asked. _

'_I'm sorry Beth,' Josef said, but it was more of a sob as his voice broke in a jarring grief-stricken way. _

'_No,' Beth whispered. _No, no, no, no, no, no,_ ran through her mind like a violent prayer._

'_I'm so sorry,' Josef repeated. 'It's too late. Mick's dead.' _

_Beth's mouth was dry and she felt as if she was looking down on this scene, like a spectator off some crazy, far-fetched play._

'_How?'_

'_It was Lance. My people have confirmed it.'_

'_Coraline's brother?' Beth's mind raced. It made no sense. 'They fell out, like, over eighteen months ago. We haven't heard anything about him since he took Coraline away.'_

'_That's not exactly true,' Josef said, in a pained voice._

'_What the hell do you mean?' Beth snapped._

_Josef's eyes flashed and he rubbed a hand over his mouth. _

'_Some of Lance's people were in L.A. about three months ago, and they wanted to speak to Mick.'_

_Beth shook her head._

'_No, Mick wouldn't have kept that from me.' But even as she spoke she knew it wasn't true: Mick would never have told her anything that would worry or upset her. That was Mick, always the protective one: her hero. 'What did they want?'_

'_I didn't get the details. The gist is Lance extended Mick a family invitation. I know he was seriously pissed at Coraline for denigrating the royal bloodline by turning Mick without permission. God knows what the hell they've been doing with Coraline since they took her back, and frankly I don't give a toss. All I know is that Lance sent his goons to bring Mick into the family fold.'_

'_And Mick said no,' Beth said, flatly._

'_He would never have left you willingly, you know that.'_

_Beth moaned in agony and crumpled to the floor at the foot of the bed, while Josef slumped against the bedroom door. _

'_Then why would Lance kill him?' Beth asked, punching a clenched fist on the floor. 'Why bother dragging him out of the window and taking him away. If he wanted Mick dead, why not have the vamps kill him in the apartment?'_

'_Beth, I don't…'_

'_Just tell me, Josef' Beth demanded, seeing the hesitation in her friend's face._

'_Fine,' Josef said quietly. 'Lance would want to do it himself. When he came to L.A. to collect Coraline, it was the first time I've heard of him being outside of Europe in centuries. And that was for his sister. He sent vamps here to bring Mick to him, so he could kill Mick by his own hand.'_

_Beth felt physically sick. _

'_We don't know that for sure,' she whispered, desperately. 'He might have changed his mind. Maybe-'_

'_I spoke to Coraline,' Josef said, desolate. 'She called two hours ago. We only spoke for a minute, I think she was risking a lot to call here. She saw Mick, Beth. He was taken to Lance, and Coraline said… she said Lance killed him.'_

'_And you believe that bitch? Coraline is a liar.'_

'_She was distraught,' Josef said, avoiding Beth's eyes, because he knew he subject of Coraline's obsessive love for her husband was a touchy subject even before… Well, it didn't matter now, did it? _

'_She's a good actress,' Beth mumbled._

'_I have another source: an acquaintance who is working at Lance's court. He said Mick arrived in one of Lance's Italian estates a few hours ago. Apparently, it was…' Josef swallowed hard 'relatively quick.' And though that was hardly saying Mick would not have suffered, Josef privately thought that, if it was true, it was a small mercy for his friend, given the marathon torture sessions Lance was infamous for. _

'_Did he actually see it happen?' Beth asked, completely embedded in denial._

_Sighing, Josef straightened his stance and looked Beth straight into her eyes, bright with unshed tears. _

'_Beth, I'm going to say this once,' he said, quietly, but with an intensely compelling voice that felled lesser mortals. 'Mick is dead. Lance is one of the most powerful and dangerous vampires in the world. This is unbearably hard, but Mick didn't stand a chance. Neither will we if we try to avenge this. We must learn to live with this.'_

_Beth looked at him in horror, then her face hardened. _

'_Get out, Josef,' Beth said, through the beginnings of gulping sobs. 'I can't… I can't accept this… I won't. Please, I just want to be alone.' _

_When the door clicked shut behind him, Beth gave in to the most soul-consuming misery she had ever felt: a million times darker than when Josh had died. She didn't know what to do next, but Beth knew that she could not live without Mick St John. _

**Present time…**

'Josef has been looking for Lance?'

A cold sensation suddenly rushed over Beth, and everything became too loud and bright for a second.

'Yep,' Logan confirmed. 'When the only contact Josef had at Lance's court disappeared off the face of the earth a few weeks after Mick was taken, Josef knew something didn't feel right. Since the court and the whole damn family seemed to disappear underground, Josef made it his mission to find them, and to find out what happened to Mick.'

'Josef didn't believe Lance actually killed Mick?'

Logan shrugged.

'I think Josef thought Mick probably was dead, but it's not like Josef to give up until he is one hundred percent sure of the cold hard facts.' Well, Beth had to agree that sounded more like the Josef she had thought she'd known, the friend she had given up on recently. 'Josef didn't want to get your hopes up. He made me promise not to tell you anything. I've been doing what I can to help smooth the way for Josef's investigations, since its all been pretty much under the radar. Which is where I live,' Logan concluded proudly.

Beth smiled at him.

'You know, Mick really was my friend too,' Logan said and Beth nodded.

'I know, Logan. I'm sorry about what I said before. I didn't know…'

'S'cool,' Logan grinned, shrugging it off.

'Do you know where Josef is right now?'

'Of course,' the vampire bragged. 'Who do you think arranged to get him there? Josef's been back and forth between here and France for the past five weeks.'

Beth smiled broadly, feeling a lightness in her heart that had not been there for too many months. If Josef had found out for sure that Mick was dead, why would he keep going back there? No, Josef must think Mick was still alive, and he was trying to save him. That lying, completely wonderful, bastard. Beth didn't know if she wanted to kiss or throttle him.

'Then there's a favour I need to ask you,' she said to Logan, fixing him firmly with her most determined gaze.

'Uh, what?' Logan asked warily.

'Wherever Josef is, I need you to get me there too.'

TBC

_**A/N: Sorry for the long wait guys: life takes over. Will try to update again much sooner. If anyone is still reading this, please let me know and review!!! I am beyond thrilled every time I get a review, and I promise I will not give up on this story. Thanks. :-)**_


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